The 7 men with the best winning percentage against top-5 opponents in ATP history: Roger Federer at No 6
Novak Djokovic has the most match wins against top-five opponents in ATP history, but he is not at No 1 in terms of best winning percentage.
That honour goes to Pete Sampras as he is one of three players with a winning percentage of at least 60% against players who were ranked inside the top five at the time of the match.
All totals are from 1990 onwards when men’s tennis was rebranded and the ATP Tour was launched so tennis legends like Rod Laver, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors – to name just a few – miss out.
The 7 men with the best winning percentage against top-5 opponents since 1990 (minimum 50 wins):
7. Andy Murray – 42.7%
Andy Murray played in the era of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and copped plenty of losses during that time, but let’s not forget he has 12 wins over No 1-ranked players as he beat Djokovic five times, Federer four times and Nadal three times.
The three-time Grand Slam winner played 124 matches against top-five opponents and had a win-loss record was 53–71.
6. Roger Federer – 58.1%
Roger Federer sits at No 2 behind Novak Djokovic in terms of best-winning percentage and most match wins against top-10 rivals, but he is outside the top five for winning percentage against top-five players.
The 20-time Grand Slam winner is one of only two players to have more than 100 wins against top-five opponents as he has 104 wins to be exact while he lost 75 of his 179 matches.
Facts & Stats Features
5. Andre Agassi – 58.5%
Andre Agassi also has a better record against top-10 players than against top-five, but the difference is not that big as he had a 59.0% winning record against top-10 rivals.
The American played 106 matches against top-five opponents and won 62 times. In that tally of 62 was 10 wins against the world No 1 with half of them against his great rival Pete Sampras.
4. Rafael Nadal – 59.6%
Rafael Nadal has 23 victories – which is a record – over players who were ranked at No 1 at the time of match with 13 wins coming against Federer and 10 against Djokovic.
He has played 156 matches against top-five opponents with 93 wins.
3. Boris Becker – 60.0%
Wimbledon’s youngest-ever men’s champion Boris Becker played 65 matches against top-five opponents and he won 39 of them.
The six-time Grand Slam winner is second behind Nadal for most wins against world No 1 players with 19 although some of them came before the inception of the ATP Tour in 1990.
His last win against a world No 1 was against Pete Sampras at the 1996 ATP Finals.
2. Novak Djokovic – 60.9%
The record-breaking Novak Djokovic is the only player to have played more than 200 matches against top-five opponents with most of those coming against Messrs Nadal, Federer and Murray.
He has 28 wins against Nadal when the Spaniard was ranked inside the top five and 24 against Federer as a top-five opponent.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner’s win-loss record against top-five opponents is 123–79.
1. Pete Sampras – 63.2%
Pete Sampras was 122–67 against top-10 opponents and he is 60–35 against top-five opponents.
His first top-five win after the launch of the ATP Tour in 1990 came at the US Open that year when he beat world No 3 Ivan Lendl in five sets in the quarter-final while Tommy Haas was his final top-five victim when he won their 2002 US Open encounter.
Incredibly, Sampras only had six wins against players ranked at No 1 in the world, but that was due to the fact that he often sat at No 1 in the rankings himself.
